Devil Been Walkabout Tonight: The Death Of Burke & Wills At Cooper's Creek: April - July 1861
About this ebook
The tragedy was a sliding doors moment in history. Burke, Wills, and King arrived back at the famous ‘Dig Tree’ camp site, the same day that this manned outpost decided to pack up and return south towards Menindie. They missed each other by a matter of hours.
Over the last few decades revisionist history has attempted to place Burke, Wills, and the sole survivor King, within the paradigm of ‘stupid, arrogant white fellas’ who ignored the wisdom and help of the Yandruwandha people who had successfully carved out a niche along and around Cooper’s Creek. The story as told by the participants through their diaries, letters, journals, and oral history from members of the Yandruwandha clan tells a completely different story. The three men appreciated that their very survival was dependent on the Yandruwandha and much time was spent trying to keep good relations with the local indigenous clan, with a few odd exceptions.
Overall, relations between the two groups were good, and it was for this reason that King survived with the help of the Yandruwandha people – without them he too would have died. This book places the death of Burke and Wills, and the generosity and good will of the Yandruwandha clan in its proper historical context.
About the author
David W. Cameron is a Canberra-based author specializing in Australian military and convict history, as well as human and primate evolution. He has published over 60 internationally peer-reviewed papers and book chapters. David received First Class Honours in Prehistoric Archaeology from the University of Sydney and completed his Ph.D. in Palaeoanthropology at the Australian National University.He has held prestigious research fellowships, including an Australian Research Council (ARC) Postdoctoral Fellowship at ANU’s School of Archaeology and an ARC QEII Fellowship at the University of Sydney’s Department of Anatomy and Histology. David has led and participated in numerous international fieldwork projects across Australia, the Middle East (Turkey, Jordan, Israel, UAE), Europe (Hungary), and Asia (Japan, Vietnam, India), and has contributed to conferences and museum studies worldwide.
